Finding Heartbeats in Rubble

September 26, 2013—Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology directorate, have developed new technology that detects human heartbeats in rubble. The radar device, known as FINDER, can locate people buried under up to 20 feet of solid concrete or 30 feet of crushed building materials.

Finding Heartbeats in Rubble

September 26, 2013—Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology directorate, have developed new technology that detects human heartbeats in rubble. The radar device, known as FINDER, can locate people buried under up to 20 feet of solid concrete or 30 feet of crushed building materials.

Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the Virginia Task Force 1, Urban Search & Rescue Training Center. Shorty, you are going to see two of our highly-trained technical search specialists actually using the FINDER device to assist them in finding a person that's buried inside our rubble pile.

JIM LUX, NASA JPL, FINDER TASK MANAGER:

FEMA had identified a problem with increasing the speed of searches in mass disasters, like Haiti and Sandy, where they would like to be able to more quickly go through and detect victims buried in rubble.

MASON PECK, NASA CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST:

Well, this Project FINDER began, as a lot of projects do, as Science. We invested in some technology that would be helpful for measuring the surface waves on the earth, also for detecting spacecrafts as they move out of solar system. And some engineers noticed that with the same technology we could also use to detect human heartbeats.

JIM LUX, NASA JPL, FINDER TASK MANAGER:

If we could detect microwave heartbeats, that's a sure sign that they victim as a heartbeat.

JOHN PRICE, DHS S&T, PROGRAM MANAGER, FIRST RESPONDER GROUP:

It uses microwave radar to scan the pile. It will actually go through the different cement, wood-frame houses, pretty much anything. It will go ahead and scan it. Pulls back like regular radar, it will go ahead bring back a signal. And we're measuring the micro-movements or small movements of the chest wall, from the heartbeat and the respiration. Even from your head, when you have the arteries in your head.

JIM LUX, NASA JPL, FINDER TASK MANAGER:

The biggest advantage of this is number one: that it detects unconscious and unresponsive victims. The other advantage of this is potentially you can have a number of people who are out collecting the data and bring it back to search and rescue teams, so you could potentially have multiple radars gathering their information together so you could search the site faster.

JOHN PRICE, DHS S&T, PROGRAM MANAGER, FIRST RESPONDER GROUP:

You can have unskilled people using the FINDER device and finding live victims, that don't have tremendous amount of skill using canines [or] you don't have canines or the listening devices or the cameras. When the time comes, pull it out, turn it on. Very easy to use. And they can detect if someone is there or not.

This team we are working with here is the best of the best. The Fairfax County Task Force 1 is one of the best in the world. And we're working with them, you know, because they get a lot of practice, go international.

JIM LUX, NASA JPL, FINDER TASK MANAGER:

The first responders have given us a lot of useful feedback. They've actually been good because they have been critical in terms of identifying things that just make it less usable than they would like and we respond to that and change the prototype in response to that.

MARK LUCAS TO JIM LUX ON SITE:

"Where do I see on here to know that actually there is a communication established and we're good?"

MARK LUCAS, VIRGINIA TASK FORCE 1, URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE:

Well, any piece of equipment that helps us find victims, we'll be glad to take a look at. And so this is just one piece of equipment that's new to us. So we're just taking a look at it, evaluating it."

JIM LUX, NASA JPL, FINDER TASK MANAGER:

In general, I think they're encouraged by it. It's a game changing technology. It detects things in a totally different way. It's another tool in the toolbox. The search & rescue personnel are very focused on find the victims and this is something that helps them do that. They want to want to rescue people. They want to save lives.

Finding Heartbeats in Rubble

September 26, 2013—Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology directorate, have developed new technology that detects human heartbeats in rubble. The radar device, known as FINDER, can locate people buried under up to 20 feet of solid concrete or 30 feet of crushed building materials.